CENTRAL NEWS
A Dengbêjî was written by a mother who witnessed the Heftanin war. The mother sings about all which she has witnessed, starting off by explaining that a dark thick smoke is ruling over Heftanin. The start of the Dengbêjî is as follows:
Come my dear, my dear
A thick dark smoke hangs over the colourful Heftanin, it is fog and smoke
It is unfaithful
It is war and battle, the war is heavy
I will sacrifice myself for the girls and boys holding hand in the dance for freedom, they are loyal
They say “we are students of Abdullah Ocalan,
We are the fighters of Kurdistan’s holy mountains and plains,
We are the promisees of these mountains,
We are the claws which hit the eyes of the unfaithful and the enemy”
What is Dengbêjî?
Turkish authorities, among other occupying powers, have obstructed the expression of Kurdish culture and forms of Kurdish cultural expression for nearly a century. Though, the history of Kurdistan has been bloody one long before the existence of the Turkish state.
‘Dengbêjî’ is a Kurdish term composed of the words deng [voice] and bêj (present tense of gotin, to tell). According to Yaşar Kemal, the dengbêj is a person who recites epics professionally. Dengbêjî is the recital of historical events, without any musical accompaniment, for these events to be passed down or educated about. Their contents generally consist of revolutionary feelings, massacres which the Kurds have endured, or the great resistances which they have put up, and their sole purpose is to let Kurdish history live on.
